Google CEO Sundar Pichai set to be one of the highest paid execs with new $199M stock grant

Pichai, the former deputy of Google co-founder Larry Page, was named to run the search engine unit following the reorganization into holding company Alphabet last year.Bloomberg | February 09, 2016, 09:02 IST

Google's Sundar Pichai is poised to become one of the highest-paid executives of a publicly traded company this year after parent Alphabet awarded him restricted stock worth some $199 million.

Pichai, who is Google’s chief executive officer, received 273,328 Class C shares on February 3 that will vest in quarterly increments through 2019 if he remains on the job, according to a filing Friday from the California-based company.

Pichai, the former deputy of Google co-founder Larry Page, was named to run the search engine unit following the reorganization into holding company Alphabet last year. The award is the biggest ever given to a Google executive officer whose equity grants have to be reported in filings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It is Pichai’s first award since taking over the company’s highest-grossing unit.

Alphabet also awarded $42.8 million in restricted stock to Diane Greene, a co-founder and former CEO of software maker VMware Inc., who’s led Google’s cloud business since November.

Greene received equity worth $148 million last year after Google acquired tech company Bebop Technologies Inc., which she founded. Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, who joined from Morgan Stanley last year, received equity worth $38.3 million that will vest under the same conditions as Pichai’s award, afiling shows.

An Alphabet spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Google typically grants equity awards to executives once every two years, a strategy it has said “encourages executives to take a long-term view of the business.”